Should I Take Creatine?

Absolutely. Lots of supplements out there are bunk and junk, but the effects of creatine have been extensively studied in humans. If you search PubMed, the Google of scientific journals, you’ll find no less than 500 clinical trials on creatine supplementation, done in humans. It’s been studied extensively in older women and men, pregnant women, ill children, and adults – both athletes and untrained – performing both aerobic exercise (think jogging or swimming) and resistance exercise (weights and machines).

As such, creatine is one of the few supplements on the market that is worth taking. It’s incredibly cheap, it has many proven benefits as an exercise performance enhancer and muscle builder, and it is incredibly safe. It’s a naturally occuring molecule in the body and functions as an energy carrier, helping the body to regenerate ATP stores. The benefits greatly outweigh any sort of harms, and every adult can benefit from supplementation, as it’s hard to get the recommended dosage (5 mg/day) through just the diet.

Elsie explains creatine thoroughly in this video:

Elsie also has other great videos on health and fitness, using scientific articles to support her claims. Definitely follow Elsie on YouTube for more videos like this one!

Because I’m pushing myself hard every day in the gym, I still supplement with creatine and found that I was able to recover faster and have more energy during my workouts. If you find yourself having a hard time recovering or want to push yourself in the gym further, creatine is definitely worth it. Your preworkout might already have some, but the one that I use – Mr. Hyde – only has about 1 gram of creatine nitrate, which is not as well absorbed as creatine monohydrate. If, for whatever reason, you find that supplementing creatine is not worth it for you, you can safely stop taking it with no harm to you – you won’t lose any of the gains that you made, since it’s not like taking an anabolic steroid.